1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a canister holding structure. More specifically, the present invention relates to a structure for holding an evaporative emissions filtration canister to a vehicle body of a vehicle equipped with a gasoline engine, the canister being provided between a fuel tank and the engine so as to reduce or prevent evaporation of gasoline fuel.
2. Description of the Background Art
Evaporative emissions systems have been standard equipment in vehicles for a number of years. Accordingly, a number of evaporative emissions filtration canisters are known for use in vehicles. Some support structures for evaporative emissions canisters are also known. Some of the known canisters have a cylindrical shape, and have directivity in a direction orthogonal to an axial direction of the cylindrical shape. In other words, some of the known canisters need to be mounted in a given posture with respect to the axis. For example, a canister disclosed in Patent Document 1 needs to be mounted transversely to a vehicle body (that is, in such a manner that the above-mentioned axis is directed in any direction other than the direction perpendicular to a ground surface) so that an air intake (42) is located, below a center line (C) of the casing, at the bottommost end of a casing.
Meanwhile, a mounting portion (for example, a mounting surface) to mount such a canister is often different between vehicles of different types. In such an instance, preparing a canister for each type of vehicle is undesirable because this leads to a rise in cost.
In this respect, a canister holding structure disclosed in Patent Document 1 is provided with three fixing portions (32, 35, 36) every 90° on the periphery of a cylindrical body portion, so that the same canister can be mounted to any one of the bottom surface, the side surface, and the top surface no matter which surface the canister is to be mounted.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Examined Utility Model Publication No. Hei 04-042515
Being provided with the large fixing portions (32, 35, 36) on the periphery of the cylindrical body portion, the conventional canister holding structure mentioned above presents the following problem. If the canister is to be reduced in size, the provision of the multiple fixing portions becomes difficult. Conversely, if the multiple fixing portions are to be provided, the canister needs to be large in size.
Also, for enhancement of the degree of flexibility in mounting a canister, it is desired that the number of fixing portions be increased to permit the canister to be mounted at various angles; however, because of the large size of the fixing portions, the conventional canister holding structure also presents a problem of difficulty in increasing the number of fixing portions, and in turn, difficulty in achieving the enhancement of the degree of flexibility in mounting.
An object of the present invention is to solve the foregoing problems and thereby provide a canister holding structure capable of achieving both the canister size reduction and the enhancement of the degree of flexibility in mounting.